Alexandra Kollontai 1920

International Women’s Day

***
First Published: Mezhdunarodnyi den’
rabotnitz, Moscow 1920;
Translated: Alix Holt 1972;
Transcribed: Tom Condit for marx.org, 1997;
Proofed: and corrected by Chris Clayton 2006.

***
A Militant Celebration

Women’s Day or Working Women’s Day is a day of international

solidarity, and a day for reviewing the strength and organization of
proletarian women.

But this is not a special day for women alone. The 8th of March is a
historic and memorable day for the workers and peasants, for all the
Russian workers and for the workers of the whole world. In 1917, on this
day, the great February revolution broke out.[2] It was the working
women of Petersburg who began this revolution; it was they who first
decided to raise the banner of opposition to the Tsar and his associates.
And so, working women’s day is a double celebration for us.

But if this is a general holiday for all the proletariat, why do we call it
“Women’s Day"? Why then do we hold special celebrations and
meetings aimed above all at the women workers and the peasant
women? Doesn’t this jeopardize the unity and solidarity of the working
class? To answer these questions, we have to look back and see how
Women’s Day came about and for what purpose it was organized.

How and Why was Women’s Day Organised?

 Not very long ago, in fact about ten years ago, the question of
women’s equality, and the question of whether women could take part
in government alongside men was being hotly debated. The working
class in all capitalist countries struggled for the rights of working
women: the bourgeoisie did not want to accept these rights. It was not
in the interest of the bourgeoisie to strengthen the vote of the working
class in parliament; and in every country they hindered the passing of
laws that gave the right to working women.

Socialists in North America insisted upon their demands for the vote
with particular persistence. On the 28th of February, 1909, the women
socialists of the U.S.A. organized huge demonstrations and meetings all
over the country demanding political rights for working women. This
was the first “Woman’s Day". The initiative on organizing a woman’s
day thus belongs to the working women of America.

In 1910, at the Second International Conference of Working Women,

[3]
Clara Zetkin brought forward the question of organizing an
International Working Women’s Day. The conference decided that
every year, in every country, they should celebrate on the same day a
“Women’s Day” under the slogan “The vote for women will unite our
strength in the struggle for socialism".

During these years, the question of making parliament more

democratic, i.e., of widening the franchise and extending the vote to
women, was a vital issue. Even before the first world war, the workers
had the right to vote in all bourgeois countries except Russia. [4] Only
women, along with the insane, remained without these rights. Yet, at
the same time, the harsh reality of capitalism demanded the
participation of women in the country’s economy. Every year there was
an increase in the number of women who had to work in the factories
and workshops, or as servants and charwomen. Women worked
alongside men and the wealth of the country was created by their
hands. But women remained without the vote.

But in the last years before the war the rise in prices forced even the
most peaceful housewife to take an interest in questions of politics and
to protest loudly against the bourgeoisie’s economy of plunder.
“Housewives uprisings” became increasingly frequent, flaring up at
different times in Austria, England, France and Germany.

The working women understood that it wasn’t enough to break up the

stalls at the market or threaten the odd merchant: They understood that
such action doesn’t bring down the cost of living. You have to change
the politics of the government. And to achieve this, the working class
has to see that the franchise is widened.

It was decided to have a Woman’s Day in every country as a form of

struggle in getting working women to vote. This day was to be a day of
international solidarity in the fight for common objectives and a day for
reviewing the organized strength of working women under the banner
of socialism.

The First International Women’s Day

The decision taken at the Second International Congress of Socialist

Women was not left on paper. It was decided to hold the first
International Women's Day on the 19th of March, 1911.

This date was not chosen at random. Our German comrades picked
the day because of its historic importance for the German proletariat.
On the 19th of March in the year of 1848 revolution, the Prussian king
recognized for the first time the strength of the armed people and gave
way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many
promise he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of
votes for women.

After January 11, efforts were made in Germany and Austria to

prepare for Women's Day. They made known the plans for a
demonstration both by word of mouth and in the press. During the
week before Women's Day two journals appeared: The Vote for Women
in Germany and Women's Day in Austria. The various articles devoted
to Women's Day – “Women and Parliament,” “The Working Women
and Municipal Affairs,” “What Has the Housewife got to do with
Politics?", etc. – analyzed thoroughly the question of the equality of
women in the government and in society. All the articles emphasized
the same point: that it was absolutely necessary to make parliament
more democratic by extending the franchise to women.
 The first International Women's Day took place in 1911. Its success
succeeded all expectation. Germany and Austria on Working Women's
Day was one seething, trembling sea of women. Meetings were
organized everywhere – in the small towns and even in the villages halls
were packed so full that they had to ask male workers to give up their
places for the women.

This was certainly the first show of militancy by the working woman.
Men stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives,
the captive housewives, went to meetings. During the largest street
demonstrations, in which 30,000 were taking part, the police decided to
remove the demonstrators' banners: the women workers made a stand.
In the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help of
the socialist deputies in Parliament.

In 1913 International Women's Day was transferred to the 8th of

March. This day has remained the working women's day of militancy.

Is Women's Day Necessary?

Women's Day in America and Europe had amazing results. It's true
that not a single bourgeois parliament thought of making concessions to
the workers or of responding to the women's demands. For at that time,
the bourgeoisie was not threatened by a socialist revolution.

But Women's Day did achieve something. It turned out above all to be
an excellent method of agitation among the less political of our
proletarian sisters. They could not help but turn their attention to the
meetings, demonstrations, posters, pamphlets and newspapers that
were devoted to Women's Day. Even the politically backward working
woman thought to herself: “This is our day, the festival for working
women,” and she hurried to the meetings and demonstrations. After
each Working Women's Day, more women joined the socialist parties
and the trade unions grew. Organizations improved and political
consciousness developed.

Women's Day served yet another function; it strengthened the

international solidarity of the workers. The parties in different countries
usually exchange speakers for this occasion: German comrades go to
England, English comrades go to Holland, etc. The international
cohesion of the working class has become strong and firm and this
means that the fighting strength of the proletariat as a whole has grown.

These are the results of working women's day of militancy. The day of
working women's militancy helps increase the consciousness and
organization of proletarian women. And this means that its contribution
is essential to the success of those fighting for a better future for the
working class.

Women Workers Day In Russia

The Russia working woman first took part in “Working Women's

Day" in 1913. This was a time of reaction when Tsarism held the
workers and peasants in its vise like a grip. There could be no thought of
celebrating “Working Women's Day” by open demonstrations. But the
organized working women were able to mark their international day.
Both the legal newspapers of the working class – the Bolshevik Pravda
and the Menshevik Looch – carried articles about the International
Women's Day: [5] they carried special articles, portraits of some of those
taking part in the working women's movement and greetings from
comrades such as Bebel and Zetkin.[6]

In those bleak years meetings were forbidden. But in Petrograd, at

the Kalashaikovsky Exchange, those women workers who belonged to
the Party organized a public forum on “The Woman Question.”
Entrance was five kopecks. This was an illegal meeting but the hall was
absolutely packed. Members of the Party spoke. But this animated
“closed” meeting had hardly finished when the police, alarmed at such
proceedings, intervened and arrested many of the speakers.

It was of great significance for the workers of the world that the
women of Russia, who lived under Tsarist repression, should join in and
somehow manage to acknowledge with actions International Women's
Day. This was a welcome sign that Russia was waking up and the Tsarist
prisons and gallows were powerless to kill the workers' spirit of struggle
and protest.

In 1914, “Women Workers Day” in Russia was better organized. Both

the workers' newspapers concerned themselves with the celebration.
Our comrades put a lot of effort into the preparation of “Women
Workers Day.” Because of police intervention, they didn't manage to
organize a demonstration. Those involved in the planning of “Women
Workers Day” found themselves in the Tsarist prisons, and many were
later sent to the cold north. For the slogan “for the working women's
vote” had naturally become in Russia an open call for the overthrow of
Tsarist autocracy.

Women Workers Day During the Imperialist War

The first world war broke out. The working class in every country was
covered with the blood of war. [7] In 1915 and 1916 “Working Women's
Day” abroad was a feeble affair – left wing socialist women who shared
the views of the Russian Bolshevik Party tried to turn March 8th into a
demonstration of working women against the war. But those socialist
party traitors in Germany and other countries would not allow the
socialist women to organize gatherings; and the socialist women were
refused passports to go to neutral countries where the working women
wanted to hold International meetings and show that in spite of the
desire of the bourgeoisie, the spirit of International solidarity lived on.

In 1915, it was only in Norway that they managed to organize an

international demonstration on Women's Day; representatives from
Russia and neutral countries attended. There could be no thought of
organizing a Women's Day in Russia, for here the power of Tsarism and
the military machine was unbridled.

Then came the great, great year of 1917. Hunger, cold and trials of
war broke the patience of the women workers and the peasant women
of Russia. In 1917, on the 8th of March (23rd of February), on Working
Women's Day, they came out boldly in the streets of Petrograd. The
women – some were workers, some were wives of soldiers – demanded
“Bread for our children” and “The return of our husbands from the
trenches.” At this decisive time the protests of the working women
posed such a threat that even the Tsarist security forces did not dare
take the usual measures against the rebels but looked on in confusion at
the stormy sea of the people's anger.
 The 1917 Working Women's Day has become memorable in history.
On this day the Russian women raised the torch of proletarian
revolution and set the world on fire. The February revolution marks its
beginning from this day.

Our Call To Battle

"Working Women's Day” was first organized ten years ago in the
campaign for the political equality of women and the struggle for
socialism. This aim has been achieved by the working class women in
Russia. In the soviet republic the working women and peasants don't
need to fight for the franchise and for civil rights. They have already
won these rights. The Russian workers and the peasant women are
equal citizens – in their hands is a powerful weapon to make the
struggle for a better life easier – the right to vote, to take part in the
Soviets and in all collective organizations. [8]

But rights alone are not enough. We have to learn to make use of
them. The right to vote is a weapon which we have to learn to master for
our own benefit, and for the good of the workers' republic. In the two
years of Soviet Power, life itself has not been absolutely changed. We
are only in the process of struggling for communism and we are
surrounded by the world we have inherited from the dark and
repressive past. The shackles of the family, of housework, of
prostitution still weigh heavily on the working woman. Working women
and peasant women can only rid themselves of this situation and
achieve equality in life itself, and not just in law, if they put all their
energies into making Russia a truly communist society.

And to quicken this coming, we have first to put right Russia's

shattered economy. We must consider the solving of our two most
immediate tasks – the creation of a well organized and politically
conscious labor force and the re-establishment of transport. If our army
of labor works well we shall soon have steam engines once more; the
railways will begin to function. This means that the working men and
women will get the bread and firewood they desperately need.
 Getting transport back to normal will speed up the victory of
communism. And with the victory of communism will come the
complete and fundamental equality of women. This is why the message
of “Working Women's Day” must this year be: “Working women,
peasant women, mothers, wives and sisters, all efforts to helping the
workers and comrades in overcoming the chaos of the railways and re-
establishing transport. Everyone in the struggle for bread and firewood
and raw materials."

Last year the slogan of the Day of Women Workers was: “All to the
victory of the Red Front.” [9] Now we call working women to rally their
strength on a new bloodless front – the labor front! The Red Army
defeated the external enemy because it was organized, disciplined and
ready for self sacrifice. With organization, hard work, self-discipline and
self sacrifice, the workers' republic will overcome the internal foe – the
dislocation (of) transport and the economy, hunger, cold and disease.
“Everyone to the victory on the bloodless labor front! Everyone to this
victory!"

The New Tasks of Working Women's Day

The October revolution gave women equality with men as far as civil
rights are concerned. The women of the Russian proletariat, who were
not so long ago the most unfortunate and oppressed, are now in the
Soviet Republic able to show with pride to comrades in other countries
the path to political equality through the establishment of the
dictatorship of the proletariat and soviet power.

The situation is very different in the capitalist countries where

women are still overworked and underprivileged. In these countries the
voice of the working woman is weak and lifeless. It is true that in
various countries – in Norway, Australia, Finland and in some of the
States of North America – women had won civil rights even before the
war. [10]

In Germany, after the Kaiser had been thrown out and a bourgeois
[11]
republic established, headed by the “compromisers,” thirty-six
women entered parliament – but not a single communist!
 In 1919, in England, a woman was for the first time elected a Member
of Parliament. But who was she? A “lady.” That means a landowner, an
aristocrat. [12]

In France, too, the question has been coming up lately of extending

the franchise to women.

But what use are these rights to working women in the framework of
bourgeois parliaments? While the power is in the hands of the
capitalists and property owners, no political rights will save the working
woman from the traditional position of slavery in the home and society.
The French bourgeoisie are ready to throw another sop to the working
class, in the face of growing Bolshevik ideas amongst the proletariat:
they are prepared to give women the vote.[13]

Mr. Bourgeois, Sir – It Is Too Late!

After the experience of the Russian October revolution, it is clear to

every working woman in France, in England and in other countries that
only the dictatorship of the working class, only the power of the soviets
can guarantee complete and absolute equality, the ultimate victory of
communism will tear down the century-old chains of repression and
lack of rights. If the task of “International Working Women's Day” was
earlier in the face of the supremacy of the bourgeois parliaments to fight
for the right of women to vote, the working class now has a new task: to
organize working women around the fighting slogans of the Third
International. Instead of taking part in the working of the bourgeois
parliament, listen to the call from Russia –

“Working women of all countries! Organize a united

proletarian front in the struggle against those who are
plundering the world! Down with the parliamentarism of the
bourgeoisie! We welcome soviet power! Away with
inequalities suffer by the working men and women! We will
fight with the workers for the triumph of world communism!”

This call was first heard amidst the trials of a new order, in the battles
of civil war it will be heard by and it will strike a chord in the hearts of
working women of other countries. The working woman will listen and
believe this call to be right. Until recently they thought that if they
managed to send a few representatives to parliament their lives would
be easier and the oppression of capitalism more bearable. Now they
know otherwise.

Only the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of soviet

power will save them from the world of suffering, humiliations and
inequality that makes the life of the working woman in the capitalist
countries so hard. The “Working Woman's Day” turns from a day of
struggle for the franchise into an international day of struggle for the
full and absolute liberation of women, which means a struggle for the
victory of the soviets and for communism!

Down with the world of Property and the Power of

Capital!
Away with Inequality, Lack of RIghts and the
Oppression of Women – The Legacy of the Bourgeois
World!
Forward To the International Unity of Working
Women and Male
Workers in the Struggle for the Dictatorship of the
Proletariat
– The Proletariat of Both Sexes!

Notes

2. Tsarist Russia still used the old “Julian” calendar of the Middle
Ages, which was 13 days behind the “Gregorian” calendar used in
most of the rest of the world. Thus March 8 was “February 23” in the
old calendar. This is why the revolution of March 1917 is called “the
February revolution” and that of November 1917 “the October
revolution.”

3. Clara Zetkin was a leader of the German socialist movement and

the main leader of the international working women's movement.
Kollontai was a delegate to the international conference representing
the St. Petersburg textile workers.

4. This is not accurate. The vast majority of unskilled workers in

England, France and Germany could not vote. A smaller percentage
of working class men in the United States could not vote – in
particular immigrant men. In the South of the US black men were
often prevented from voting. The middle class suffrage movements
in all the European countries did not fight to give votes to either
working class women or men.

5. At its 1903 Congress, the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party

divided into two wings, the Bolsheviks (which means “majority” in
Russian) and the Mensheviks (which means “minority"). In the
period between 1903 and 1912 (when the division became
permanent) the two wings worked together, unified for a while, split
again. Many socialists, including entire local organizations, worked
with both wings or tried to stay neutral in the disputes. Kollontai, an
active socialist and fighter for women's rights since 1899, was at first
independent of the factions, then became a Menshevik for several
years. She joined the Bolsheviks in 1915 and became the only woman
member of their central committee. She also served as Commissar of
Welfare of the Soviet Republic and head of the Women's Section of
the Bolshevik Party.

6. August Bebel (1840-1913) was a leader of the German Social-

Democratic Party. He was a well-known supporter of the women's
movement and author of a classic book on Marxism and women (Die
Frauenfrage, translated into English as Woman Under Socialism,
which has been translated into many languages.

7. When war broke out in 1914, there was a massive split in the
international socialist movement. The majority of the Social
Democrats in Germany, Austria, France and England supported the
war. Other socialists, such Kollontai, Lenin, the Bolshevik Party and
Trotsky in Russia, Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany
and Eugene Debs in the United States, to name some of the leaders,
denounced the pro-war socialists for being traitors to the working
class and to the fight for a workers' revolution.

8. The word “soviet” means “council.” Soviets, or workers' councils,

are democratic bodies in which delegates are elected in factory and
neighborhood meetings and are controlled by their sister and
brother workers. The representatives of the soviets must report back
to their constituency and are subject to immediate recall.

9. After the working class seizure of power in October/November

1917, the Russian workers' state was faced with two major problems.
One was an invasion by thirteen countries, including the United
States; the second was resistance by the pro-monarchist and pro-
capitalist elements in Russia. Primarily under the direction of Leon
Trotsky, the soviets created a workers and peasants army, the Red
Army, which defeated the forces of counterrevolution.

10. Women had won the right to vote in several of the United States
prior to World War I. A federal amendment guaranteeing all women
over 21 the right to vote was passed on August 26, 1920. It was not
until the 1960s that the last legal barriers to working class people
voting in the United States were abolished.

11. The “compromisers” Kollontai is referring to are the Social

Democratic leaders who formed a new capitalist government in
Germany after the fall of the Kaiser in 1918. They actively supported
counterrevolution after coming to office.

12. While the aristocratic Lady Astor was indeed the first woman to
serve in the British parliament, the first woman elected to
parliament was the Irish revolutionary Constance Markievicz.
Together with other members of the Sinn Fein party, she refused to
take her seat in the imperial parliament.

13. French women did not finally get the vote until after World War
II.

Kollontai Archive | MIA Women's Subject Section